The use of sterile instruments is typically desirable for the operation of a viable medical or dental practice. Unfortunately, the disinfectant or sterilization processes available are often time consuming, labor intensive, costly, and can result in undesirable or hazardous waste. Additionally, some sterilization process can damage medical and dental equipment over a period of time. Typically, the sterilization process includes multiple steps where there is direct involvement of a technician. Such processes can also take several hours to complete. Furthermore, the lengthy duration and frequency of these sterilization techniques usually forces medical or dental providers to have large inventories of medical instruments in order to provide continuous uninterrupted service to their patients. In light of this, research continues in an effort to find fast effective sterilization techniques that are require minimal labor and are cost effective.